The past can hurt. So can the future. But God is good.

As I prepare to board an airplane and depart a part of the world that I dearly love, I am emboldened by some new ideas that have been planted in my consciousness over the last couple of days.

You see, I've spend the last (almost) three days in the beautiful Twin Cities, Minneapolis & St. Paul, Minnesota, specifically at Luther Seminary - a place and, more importantly, a people who shaped my life in ways that I continue to discover and revel.  Thanks to a congregation that allows time and money to me for continuing education events like the one I've been attending here, I get to spend days like these in wonderful places...and, again, with wonderful people.

I don't know if I first heard the phrase here while I was in seminary or at some other time along the journey (it's getting long enough now that I forget when stuff happened!) and it might seem kinda trite...but I think it's true, none-the-less: "God doesn't call the qualified. Rather, God qualifies the called."  I certainly believe that about myself since I have never felt that I am the most qualified for this role that God has placed me in.  Nevertheless, I can say with boldness of faith that I am called...so I trust in God that the qualifications will be granted by grace.

It is hard, though, not to despair.  We live in a world that is changing rapidly.  And despite the wonder of a human race that can travel to the Moon and beyond, can probe (and manipulate) the depth of the genome, and can virtually transport our bodies around the globe via communication technology, many of us feel helpless to be the people God has called us to be.  No less is this the case than for those of us who are called to be the Church (not just pastors like me, but all of us who make up the Body of Christ).  There is a fear in our midst that something is wrong, that we are losing, that the life that God has planted in us and which sustains us and gives us hope, is dying.  The Church isn't going to survive in this new age, we lament.  Woe, is us!

This lament was raised within the conversations and speeches that I was a part of these last couple of days at Luther.  Under the banner Preaching at the Crossroads, we engaged the reality that, indeed, the church and the world is in the midst of change, turmoil, and upheaval.  In many ways, this is scary.  There is uncertainty around almost every corner.  Even, some things are dying.  So, what is the Church to say in this day...to this reality?

Part of the answer was articulated when one of the speakers encouraged us to imagine that we can approach the future as a scary, unknown, uncertain reality...and hope that we can somehow between now and then muster the tools and resources we will need to manage whatever may come.  Or, we can dream the future into reality by being and doing now what God wills us to be for the sake of the unknown, future world...and we can develop the resources and tools that we need as we go.  The value in the later plan is that it is much more faithful to God who is making us new each day.

I'm reminded of Jesus' words about becoming like little children.  He said, If you want to become my disciples, you must become like little children.  In context, what Jesus is saying isn't that we must become small and cute and adorable.  Rather, because in Jesus' world children where among the lowest in terms of their social status and immediate importance, Jesus uses their example to say that disciples must give up the power and control they think they have in this world.  This is a vulnerable move, but one that also brings freedom and release.  Consider also the way children think.  Ideally, they are not worried about the future.  They do not wonder whether they will have the skills and resources they need to tame the world to come.  To the extent that kids are afraid, I would argue it is the fear and misuse of the world that adults have and which we project onto our kids that makes them afraid of the future.  By nature kids anticipate the future with wonder, awe, and joyful expectation.  And they trust (prehaps foolishly so) that they will learn what they will need to know.

We need to adopt this attitude of children.  We need to become like little children.  To give up fear and worry about what the future holds is to give up power and control.  To give up wondering if we will have the tools, skills and know-how to be the church that the future will require is to allow God to make good on the promise to make in us a new creation.  And to joyfully anticipate that the future will be a place that is filled with blessings even amidst the inevitable troubles and trials is to trust that God is the one...not ourselves...who gives us all we need.  

What the church will be in the days to come and how we will engage a world that will undoubtedly look very different than the world of today is, indeed, uncertain.  And fear of that uncertainty is normal.  But the saying remains true...God qualifies the called.  We - the Church - all of us - together - will be qualified, and equipped, and gifted, and blessed, and encouraged, and forgiven, and filled with joy as we step boldly and faithfully into a future held in God's hands.

I left this beautiful city once to enter a future God only knew.  I do so again today!